Food prices are up more than 3.5 percent over last year according to the latest Consumer Price Index. Meat, poultry, and fish contribute significantly to this increase.
The White House is going after the top four meat processors, citing concern over what the National Economic Council calls “pandemic profiteering.”
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack explained one example he has seen as he travels the country, listening to the ag community.
According to Vilsack, “It’s not something we’re dreaming up here, the profits are real, the fact that producers are not making a profit, I mean, I remember talking to a producer the other day in Council Bluffs and he said, ‘I don’t get this Mr. Secretary. I just sold my cattle and I lost $150 a head, but the processor made $1,800 a head. How can that be?’”
The North American Meat Institute claims that Secretary Vilsack is shifting the blame for inflationary prices to scapegoat the meat and poultry industry.
The packing trade group says that COVID and lack of labor are hurting consumers and the Secretary has done nothing to help families who have trouble paying for groceries.
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Vilsack releases a message to meatpackers